(Closed) NWR: Coworker Vent

So one of my coworkers comes and visits me and sits in my office once a day to chat/catch up/whatever.

He’s really great and I like chatting with him (it’s a nice break in the day). However his eating and drinking habits are DISGUSTING!

He always comes into my office with either food or a bottle of water. He chews with his mouth open, lips snaking, eating noises, talking with his mouth full, the WHOLE shebang! He’s even accidentally spit food before and not noticed. Thankfully he rarely comes in with food so this is more of an issue when we eat lunch together with other coworkers.

He also is just as gross drinking water. He takes huge gulps, squeezes the bottle, slurps, spits half back into the bottle, and it’s just GROSS! And he takes a big gulp like this between EVERY sentence. I mean I never thought the way someone drank water could be so gross and off putting!

I don’t know what to do? I mean I know I can nicely request he not eat in my office… but I can’t really ask him not to bring water in.

Oh gosh, that’s one of my biggest pet peeves!!! AT this age, you should really know how to close your mouth when you chew and not be so disgusting as to make everyone else sick when drinking a bottle of water..

All I can say is maybe tell him you’re really busy and you’ll stop by his desk later? So you can have a little more control over the situation and decide to jump ship when he starts slurping?

@moderndaisy: I feel bad because we do the same job and I have an office and he doesn’t. So he can easily come and sit here, whereas I’d have to go and stand over him at his desk. Plus that water bottle follows him EVERYWHERE. Even if I were to stop and chat with him in the HALL I’m sure he’d be slurping away.

I also feel bad because my team goes to lunch together every day. I go from time to time (there are other people in the office I go to lunch with as well). But I know I’d go to lunch with my group more often if he wasn’t such a disgusting eater!

@CaraMia10: Yeah I know! But I’m usually a really tolerant person. I have no problem with people eating in my office. Heck I eat in my office! As long as it doesn’t smell terrible or the person eating isn’t a total slob.

Can you jokingly tease him about it? Since you enjoy his company otherwise and seem to have some kind of a friendship maybe he won’t be offended and take the hint..

I can barely even get this out it’s so disgusting, but I had a boss at my old job who believe it or not was actually worse than your friend. Not only was he a disgusting eater and drinker, but he was always picking his nose and get this.. blowing snot rockets into his hand and wiping it on the chair underneath him. When I went into his office for a meeting he would be constantly picking his nose and spitting into tissues. I didn’t want to bring him along to any client meetings despite his constant pressure to include him because he grossed them out too!!! AT least with this guy, I didn’t like him at all (neither did my other coworkers) so we just avoided him. I was one step away from going to HR about how disgusting he was before I got my current job and resigned..

@moderndaisy: I have joked with him about how his water bottle is always with him and how often he drinks from it (and how aggressively he crushes it while drinking). But I don’t know how I could joke about the eating noises. I think it might be partly cultural and I don’t want to insult him.

You could just point blank ask him to stop the next time he does it in your office. Say something like “Hey could you stop playing wiht the water bottle? that’s really dsitracting”. It might make for an awkward moment, but at least maybe he’ll get over it and tone it down a bit..

@KatNYC2011: Hmm… that’s a toughie! And by the way, I don’t know any culture who does this. I think it’s just people who are not taught good manners early on that do not see that there is anything wrong with their manners.

If he is kinda close with you, you can mention how bottles are killing the environment and then go ahead and get him a thermos or those plastic bottles that are resusable and are HARD and therefore cannot be squeezed. You can pick the one you want to get so get an opaque one. Lol!

As for eating habits, just say that you fear this will infest bugs in your office and you are too paranoid so you much rather not have any food in there. That could go against you too if you eat in your own office so you gotta think about that.

@Sasha2011: He’s Chinese and was born in China. I have heard that eating noises and slurping food is a way to show your enjoyment and appreciation of the food. I like the water bottle idea, maybe I will get him one (as well as myself because plastic bottles really aren’t great for the environment). I do eat in my own office almost every day, so I can’t really tell him I’m against eating in my office.

@moderndaisy: I like your idea as well. We’ll see if I’m feeling brave/blunt next time he’s in here.